H'rik already has lots of hidework, so R'ku brings him some more! It could help prevent another disaster.

When

It is midmorning of the sixteenth day of the sixth month of the fourteenth turn of the 12th pass.

Where

Council Chamber, Igen Weyr

OOC Date

11 Jul 2018 23:00

Council Chamber

Once disproportionately grandiose, the recent regimes have scaled the gaudy aura of Igen's council rooms down to better match the fit of the work executed within these walls. Spartan still, with foreboding stonework and a heavy wooden door, the innards of the room are swallowed by a giant round table, an ancient creation of fire-hardened wood carved with the three dunes of Igen. Comfortable chairs surround that monolith to authority, all similar but two, grandiose things left as memories of a past mentality. The walls are lined with elegant old tapestries, depicting scenes of ancient Igen glories.

After drills with Whirlwind, there's what seems like a never-ending stack of hides to get through. There's little variety day to day: reports on poor behaviour from riders; drill reports; sweep summaries. A transfer request, either in or out of Igen, would at least provide something different to read, rather than the usual boredom. At least S'tol's report about a visit to Moreta Hold makes him smile, written in the brownrider's usual carefully humorous style. The Weyrleader is sat at the giant table alone, save for the bronze fire-lizard currently clinging to one of the old tapestries on the wall. Not that H'rik seems to realise what's going on behind him, as he's currently leaning back in his chair and chuckling softly at something in S'tol's report. Dressed casually for the heat, his riding jacket is slung over the back of the chair.

Drills, hidework, heat - R'ku has his own share of such things to deal with, as well. But at least the hidework is something that can mostly be pushed up the chain of command for H'rik to deal with at some point. It's this errand that has brought R'ku to the edge of the Council Chambers, a very thick stack of hidework under one arm and a contemplative expression on his face. He's had more than his fair share of things to think about the past several days besides Thread, after all. He pauses at the threshold, leaning in to peer down the expanse of table, "Weyrleader? You up for a bit more hidework? There seems to be a situation brewing." He lifts the thick stack of hidework in explaination, wiggling it slightly to show its heft and weight. He could probably injure someone if he slapped a person with it.

H'rik straightens up in his seat when he realises he's no longer alone, trying to look like he wasn't just having a laugh at something on a hide. "Ah, R'ku. Er-" he eyes the immense stack of pages beneath the Wingleader's arm warily. Putting aside the report he was reading, he pushes a few other stacks away to make space for the new item. Let's hope the table's strong enough to hold it. "Yes, of course. A situation?" He probes, looking curiously at R'ku.

R'ku inclines his head briefly and strides into the chambers, his expression still rather pensive. Granted, he probably just manages to look grim instead. He can't help but add a pn, though, with the barest hint of amusement touching his deep voice, "A stormy situation, if you will." Once there's enough room on the table, R'ku drops the stack of hides in the open space. They make a satisfying *thud* of impact. Leaning forward, R'ku pulls the top hide from the stack … which turns out to be what's causing most of the thickness and weight - it's a much larger hide folded to be more manageable. R'ku starts to unfold the ungainly thing, spreading the entire thing out in front of H'rik. It's obviously been made by the Starcrafters - it shows a portion of the Igen protection area but with various altitude and weather/wind markings all over it. Doubtless it makes sense to someone. "I've gotten reports in from the sweepriders," R'ku begins, voice back to even professional tones, "There are some concerning wind shifts in the areas surrounding where the next Threadfall will be. The Starcrafters are thinking it's all going to collide together right before the Threadfall and make some sort of larger storm that can cause problems." R'ku indicates a few wavy lines on the hide as he speaks, his fingers indicating several areas of the hidework surrounding the main area where Thread is scheduled, "Don't ask me to explain the details as to /how/ they think that's likely to happen. They've written up some sort of dry report about it at the bottom of the stack underneath my report and the sweeprider's reports."

H'rik offers a small smile at the pun, but he can't relax too much, not with a report this size from the leader of the Wing who does his Threadfall and weather predictions. When R'ku drops the stack onto the table, he reaches to steady a particularly unstable pile of hides to prevent them skidding off the table. And- "let me make some more room," he says as the Wingleader starts unfolding the big hide. H'rik stands and starts shoving stuff out of the way so that the map can lay out flat for examination. He makes a good job of pretending he understands what it presents, even putting fingertips on his chin as he studies it. Thank goodness R'ku is here to translate. "I see," is what he settles for, rather than the 'shards' he'd prefer to let out. He glances at the bottom of the stack. "I might pass on that one. So that's over Igen River Valley." He at least knows his geography of the Weyr's protectorate, frowning down at the map and the wavy lines R'ku pointed out. "Right before Threadfall, too. Did they mention if there was any kind of margin of error?" He looks up fromt he map to R'ku, eyes almost hopeful there might be some wriggle room.

R'ku exhales a gusty breath, "As much of a margin of error as any of these weather predictions can go. They seemed fairly certain about this, but we do still have a few days for the weather to turn." Leaning forward, R'ku studies the map carefully with narrowed mismatched eyes before touching several different spots, "I've increased sweeps here … here … and here leading up to the Threadfall. We should hopefully catch any swings in the wind and have a more accurate prediction closer. But … " He settles back, glancing up towards H'rik, "… after the last debacle of a storm during Threadfall appearing unexpectedly, Sirocco is being extra careful. Ch'ad is not one of the assigned sweepriders, either." He taps a specific spot to the north of Igen River Hold, "We are even going to have a Starcrafter accompany the sweeprider at the next sweep in this section. They have some fancy equipment to try to measure winds." The look on his face probably indicates the fact he has no clue what the heck the equipment does or how it works, but he trusts the Starcrafter to know. "I'll keep you up to date." He rubs a hand over his face briefly, fingers rasping over a couple day's worth of stubble that he hasn't bothered to shave, "I think it would be prudent to move forward as though the storm were going to hit. At the very least, there will be somewhat erratic winds. But if we deploy formations expecting that … the damage should hopefully be minimal."

H'rik was, sadly, expecting that answer, and his eyes flick back to the map before he gives away too much of the disappointed look in them. He follows R'ku's explanation with the map's assistance, a grim cast coming across his features and a tightening of his jaw as the Wingleader brings up that last terrible Threadfall. "And I appreciate it immensely." Whether he means Sirocco's diligence, Ch'ad not being on the sweeps, or both, is left unsaid. "Ah, good to hear it. Would be nice to see if their fancy equipment can help us out." From his tone of voice, H'rik is clearly hoping it will! "Yes, that makes complete sense," he agrees with R'ku, sitting back down in his chair and gesturing for R'ku to take one of the other chairs. "Faranth knows we need to minimize damage as much as we can. I've got two pairs out of Sandblast for weeks because the idiots collided with one another." He sounds pretty irritable about that incident.

R'ku settles gratefully down in the empty chair with a sigh. He waves vaguely towards the map and the stack of hide still sitting underneath it, "My report has a few formation suggestions we've found help in high winds. Usually the positions need to be shuffled for the best results - bigger dragons up front, smaller dragons at the tails. May even need to spread out a bit more due to the wind spreading the Thread even further out." He grimaces at the thought and rubs at his forehead - all this technical talk from the Starcrafters has alraedy given him a headache and this isn't helping. He blinks at H'rik's words about a collision and snorts, "I heard about that but I didn't think anyone could be so stupid. Hopefully they won't be out too long … especially if the dragons were browns or bronzes. The bigger colors will need to pull more weight in these high winds. The greens and blues are going to tire more quickly trying to maintain their position." He frowns in thought for a few moments before shaking his head and sighing, "Not turning out to be the best sevenday, all around." R'ku eyes the other stacks of hides, "Bit backed up on hidework?"

Whirlwind, at least, won't have too much trouble with bigger dragons. It seems to attract them. As for the others, though…that's going to be a task H'rik has to tae on: telling the Wingleaders how they need to utilise the sizes of their pairs to their advantages. "Anything that can be done to make things less risky, we've got to do it. I'll have a look through the suggestions, then I'll just have to convince the more, ah, headstrong Wingleaders that they should at least consider them." He gives R'ku an exasperated look about those particular riders. As to the Sandblast pair - the tightening of the muscles in H'rik's jaw gives away his feelings before he even speaks, in an equally tight voice. "One's a brown and the other a blue. Not ideal." He looks over the mass of hidework, nodding agreement with R'ku's verdict on the sevenday. "A little. A small part of me regrets getting too involved in the T-Tourney planning, but I think it was worth it."

R'ku glances over all the various stacks of hide, mentally calculating the sheer amount of them, "Kabelkath might be angry with me for saying this - but I'm shrdring glad he didn't catch the Senior queen. Wingleader is bad enough for hidework." Huffing out a breath, R'ku leans back in his seat, "Not that my pleas have ever stopped him from trying to chase any gold that rises." The mention of the Tourney has him hmming in his throat, "Still kind of disappointed I was sick for the Tourney. I'll have to try to participate next time it comes around - you're going to try to make it annual, aren't you?" Leaning forward, he pulls the huge map towards him and then starts on the laborious process of trying to re-fold the thing. It's probably just like modern maps - impossible to fold back to the original size.

H'rik aims a quick grin at R'ku for that admission. "I won't tell Wendryth he's got a diehard competitor." As to the amount of work, hidework and otherwise, that comes with his particular knot…he's not going to go into detail on that. Are there times he wishes it had gone to an older, more experienced rider? Probably quite a few times, yes. His face crumples some for R'ku's misfortune around the T-Tourney. "Shards - sorry to hear that. But yeah - if I'm still in a position to be able to call the shots, I'd like to do it again." He watches R'ku with the map, lifting a hand as if about to help…but then thinking better of it. Too many cooks. Magi takes his moment to leap from the tapestry, sending the bar that holds the thing clattering. H'rik jerks his head round, but the bronze has already flown off to the other side of the room, so all the Weyrleader has left to look at is the rippling tapestry, his expression confused.

R'ku jerks in surprise at the sudden appearance of the bronze fire lizard, dropping the alf-folded map with a sudden swear, "Shard it all - was that your bronze?" He twists in his chair to peer at the tapestry and then off in the distance where the bronze went, frowning, "Does he always do that? At least mine never seems to stop chirruping so I always know where they are." He eyes the mess the map has become, sighs, and picks it back up again to try to start folding the thing.

Magi comes to rest atop a bit of wall just uneven enough to permit a fire-lizard to perch there. From there, he peers down at the two men, eyes unblinking, almost looking like he's smiling. H'rik turns and spots the bronze, shaking his head. "Ah - sorry. Yeah. He's a bit of an odd one." He meets the bronze gaze, but it's the human half of the staring contest who loses, and H'rik looks down at some hides, sweeping them back in front of him and shuffling them idly. Poor R'ku and the map. "I don't know if I'd rather him or a constantly chirruping one," he notes with a smile. "Funny things. You've got many?" It's like, Wingleader bonding time!

R'ku unfolds one bit of the map and tries a different way, brows furrowed in concentration. "Ah. Yes. A gold and a bronze," he notes idly, "Everyone wants a gold … but … there's that unfortunate side effect of eggs all the time. And mine likes to lay them in inopportune places." He makes a face and then laughs, "Right in my riding helmet last time." Eventually he gives up on the map and just squishes it into a somewhat folded position - it lies flat enough, apparently! "My weyrmate has a gold, too, so there's double eggs now. And they're on different cycles so it seems like by the time one is finished the other may be starting up soon." He gives a shrug of his shoulders and snorts, "Ah well. They make up for it in other ways." He squints up at Magi's hiding spot thoughtfully, "Seems a bit distracting, that one. But bronze, at least - should be easy to train?"

"A good combination, I'm told," H'rik notes on that particular mix of fire-lizards. He joins R'ku in laughter at the unfortunate location of gold nests. "I haven't got a gold - I think Wendryth's enough for me." He's still smiling broadly as he watches R'ku try to wrangle the map into something more sensibly-sized. "They're not as bad as dragons when it comes to clutches, are they?" He seems alarmed at the thought, as he asks the question. He glances up at Magi and his smile grows more dry as he answers: "Well…he's got something of a mind of his own. And he's…easily distracted. And I'm not exactly a professional fire-lizard trainer," he adds with a grin.

R'ku can't help but snort a laugh, "If you mean do they lay 30 eggs or so? Shards, no. About 5 or 6 on the usual. They do usually brood over them like a gold … except I think my gold is defective and isn't so fussed about people coming near them. It's like she wants to show them off." He shrugs his shoulders before he glances around at the massive amounts of hide work that H'rik has laid out in front of him. He blinks, as though just remembering who it is he's talking to, "But I probably shouldn't keep you from catching up on your hidework talking about fire lizards, should I?" Sighing, he rises to his feet and brushes idly at his pants, straightening them out, "Have to pick up some tea from the Bazaar, anyhow." He falls silent for a moment after that, face pensive again, before nodding to H'rik, "Anything else you need, Weyrleader?"

"That's got to be preferable to chasing people away from them," H'rik says, glancing over at Magi. The bronze is still staring, the little weirdo. H'rik shakes his head, apparently used to this sort of behaviour. "Honestly - it's a welcome break," he says, not seeming worried at all about being distracted from the what probably SHOULD be worrying amount of reading he has yet to do. He blinks at R'ku's errand; seems about to ask something; then nods slowly. "Not that I can think of - but if you do try out some altered formations, let me know if you have any tips these hides don't have?" His hand moves to the nice stack R'ku brought in with him. Yep, the Weyrleader's got plenty to be getting on with.

R'ku inclines his head again, "Will do. We may try out a few different formations in drills this evening. There are a few areas where the wind is high that we can test in." He trails off, seemingly thoughtful about this possibility before nodding once again, "I'll keep you posted on what the sweeps bring out. I'm sorry to say you'll be getting more hides from me before long." He glances apologetically at the stack that he's leaving with the Weyrleader now. He gives H'rik a final salute before starting to head out towards the main weyr, "Have a good day, Weyrleader."

"I'd better get started on these, then," H'rik says, followed by: "you too, R'ku." Refreshed from a little break from the tedium, he'll turn back to his task, watched over by the strange little bronze.